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Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie
  • Posted at 1:59pm
  • 26 September 2007
  • by SarahDempster-RT
  • 1 comment

When, back in March, Auntie announced that Mark Radcliffe would be joining forces with fellow BBC Radio 2 stalwart Stuart Maconie for the purposes of a new evening show, I was inconsolable. "Turncoats! Poltroons!" I roared, in the manner of a (marginally) less hirsute Captain Haddock, imagining a fate akin to that which befell Whizzer and Chips when it was forced, weeping, into an arranged marriage with fellow comic powerhouse Buster (ie a slow, agonising death).

"Surely," I continued, raining tearful blows on my copy of the latest Radio Times, "anyone can see that the combination of such similar broadcasting styles will only dilute the award-winning presenters' considerable individual charms while depriving listeners of the vast and unalloyed weeknight joy that is the existing, solo Mark Radcliffe Show!"

But I was wrong. How wrong? This wrong (throws open arms and grimaces to indicate a wrongness of humbling magnitude). Because the result of this enforced union, this putative Clash of the Broadcasting Titans, is, against all odds, a programme of seemingly effortless excellence.

Indeed, just five months after they first found themselves peering at each other over a stack of pre-signed Ken Bruce publicity snaps, a couple of chewed biros and a teetering tower of unopened Michael Buble CDs, the Radcliffe-Maconie partnership already feels like an institution. A Sherbet Dip-Dab of fizzing wit and creamy nostalgia, it's as much a part of the Radio 2 furniture as Wogan's beloved breakfast bash or Sounds of the 70s.

It's a sofa of literary snugness: a pouffe of eloquent glee. Their styles - earthy yet sensitive northerner with punk leanings, and earthy yet sensitive northerner with prog leanings, respectively - are complementary to the point that it's increasingly difficult to tell them apart.

Monday's studio guest - itsy-bitsy Virginian singer/songwriter Devon Sproule - spoke for the nation when, in response to a question pertaining to the correct pronunciation of her surname ("sprawl", as it happens), she drawled, "I can't tell which one of y'all said that."

Their easy banter is so un-self-conscious, so pass-the-butter-mother comfortable, they sound like a married couple, albeit a married couple that doesn't touch one another's bottom, obviously, and spends its evenings discussing the thematic intricacies of Van der Graaf Generator records as opposed to, say, skirting boards.

In the duo's quest to retrieve every last lump of joy from the mineshaft of rock history, Monday's show saw the introduction of a new feature, wherein they impart their favourite music-based anecdotes. So we heard about the time Ozzy Osbourne yanked down rotund Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward's eezy-fit jogging bottoms during a stadium gig ("e didn't moind," said Ozzy, apparently, "e's gorra big old schlong 'as Bill"), and about the time Supertramp stuffed tiny support act Chris de Burgh into a laundry basket as punishment for the Irishman's infuriating penchant for charging back on stage immediately after his set.

Best of all, however, is the duo's passion for words. Hence, Supertramp were described by Maconie (or was it Radcliffe?) as "hirsute counter-tenors of cheesecloth smock-rock," while Radcliffe (or was it Maconie?), upon learning a caller was from Shipley, sighed, "ah, Eldorado…" and, incredibly, managed not to sound like a prize plum in a village fete for condescending DJs.

Arise, Sirs Radcliffe and Maconie, gallant knights of a new dawn in unexpectedly brilliant broadcasting.

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie are on BBC Radio 2, Monday-Thursday at 8:00pm.

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  • Posted on 12 October 2007
  • at 1:29pm
  • by petergbowen1

I'm sure some people like them, but for my money they spoil the whole flavour of specialist musics in the evening that I personally loved and which won Radio 2 its high reputation. There's plenty of room elsewhere for people talking between unrelated and unwanted records, used only for somebody's bash at humour.

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